Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was a writer, art-collector, and pioneer of modernism. Born in Pennsylvania, she studied psychology at Harvard and attended medical school, dropping out in her fourth year to move to Paris with her brother Leo. Here she played a crucial role in shaping the burgeoning European avant garde, hosting literary salons that counted Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Ernest Hemingway among the visitors. She was the author of countless poems, plays and shorter works, as well as books including Three Lives, The Making of Americans, Tender Buttons and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.